Ninjago: Children of Spinjitzu (Book 1)
by darkninja12
Summary: Cliff, Amber, Roxy, and Laynie seem like pretty normal kids. They go to school, they play video games, they watch movies and listen to music. But when Laynie is attacked by an old enemy who no one can remember, it's up to them to save their friend and the world.
1. History Project

Chapter 1: History Project

It was a sunny day in Ninjago. The people of Ninjago city were bustling about doing daily business. There were people working, talking, kids playing and going to school. A young boy, around 15 years old, with short black hair, wearing jeans and a blue jacket is staring at a video game, playing very intently. He walks under a large sign that reads: SENSEI WU'S ACADEMY. Kids are swarming out front, talking and laughing. The boy skillfully avoids people and cars as he plays his game. He looks up when hears someone call his name.

"Cliff!" A girl, his same age, with long red hair pulled back into a ponytail, wearing a short, orange dress, and lots of makeup walks over to him.

"Hey Amber." Cliff looks back at his video game and the two begin walking together.

"You weren't at the Bounty yesterday." She says.

"I was busy." He mumbles, not looking up. She's silent for a moment.

"You had a video game tournament didn't you?"

He shakes his head. "No. I was working on my robot…and then I had a video game tournament."

She tries to sound interested, "Did you win?"

Cliff looks at his cousin from the corner of his eye and raises an eyebrow. "What do you think?"

They stopped walking. "Yes?" Amber is unsure of how to answer.

Cliff nods and they continue walking. They enter the school building.

"Well you really missed out." Amber adds. "We played UNO, and had pizza and Roxy played guitar and we watched Fritz Donegan and-"

"Wait, wait wait." Cliff interrupted. "You watched Fritz Donegan?"

"Yeah."

"You watched Fritz Donegan...WITHOUT ME?

"Yeah… But why does it matter? You've got an original copy of every single movie!"

Cliff shrugged. "You still could've called me."

"We did!" Amber is starting to get frustrated.

Cliff laughs. "I'm joking! I'm joking!" He looks up from his game. "Oh look there's Roxy!" He stuffs his game in his back pocket and runs down the hall towards a girl around their age. She's standing at her locker. She smiles as they approach her. She has medium length black hair with bright pink highlights, wearing a black sweatshirt, and gray ripped up jeans. "Hey guys!"

"Hey Roxy." Cliff blushes and Amber rolls her eyes. "What's up?"

"Nothin much" Roxy answered, one earbud in her ear and one out, as usual. "I missed you last night."

Cliff laughs nervously and scratched the back of his head. "Hehe...you-you missed me?"

"Yeah!" Roxy answered. "It was SO much fun, we watched-"

"Yeah yeah, I get it you guys watched Fritz Donegan without me!" Cliff begins to walk towards a classroom.

"Samurai in space!" Roxy called out.

"Ah, seriously!" Cliff grumbled.

Amber and Roxy giggled as they followed him into class and sat at their desks. They look over at their friend. Cliff is talking with his best friend Brandon.

Misako enters the room. She taught history class at the academy as well as running the natural history museum after Dr. Saunders, also known as Crux, was lost in time . "Good morning class! I hope you all had a fun weekend!"

The kids shrug their shoulders, a few mumble under their breath.

Misako smiles. "Well I sure did! Before we start the lesson I have a few announcements…"

Cliff zoned out at this point, daydreaming about his new video game _Delivery Trucks vs. Zombies 2_. Misako continues.

"And finally one last announcement. This semester, from now on, you ninth graders will be combining with the eighth graders for History during 4th period."

Cliff was suddenly paying attention. He saw Roxy look up from her doodle of a person eating a sandwich. Cliff smirked. That was just like Roxy, always thinking about food.

Many of the kids groaned. Although Wu's academy taught students of all ages, anyone below high school seemed too "young" and "immature" for the "big kids"

"Each of you will be partnered with an 8th grader to work on a history project you will present at the end of the year."

The kids burst out in yells of protest.

"Why can't we work with the 10th graders?" Brandon asked.

"Because they are working with the juniors." Misako answered. "And the seniors each have to do a project individually.

The class sighed. Misako smiled. "I will be passing out your partner's name and your assignment. You are expected to get started this week.I hope you have fun!"

Cliff and Brandon exchanged an annoyed look and sighed. This was not their idea of fun.

A few hours later, Cliff walked out of the lunch line in the cafeteria with a tray of food. He sat down at a table across from Amber and Roxy. Brandon sat down next to him. "Do you guys know who Amelia Compton is?" he asks.

Roxy takes a big bite of pizza. "She's some rich 8th grade girl. Her parents are like fashion designers or something."

"She's pretty much SPOILED to death." Amber adds. "But I've talked to her a couple of times and she's actually really nice."

"And REALLY pretty." Roxy says.

"Aw man," Cliff sighed. "Why couldn't I get the pretty rich girl?"

Brandon chuckled. "Some of us are just more fortunate than others, Cliff." Then he added. "Who'd you get?"

"What's the one thing worse than having to work on a history project with an eighth grader?"

"A seventh grader?"

"Well yeah, there's that, but try having to work on a history project with an eighth grader who's also your SISTER."

"Oh." Brandon said. "Well _she's_ pretty and rich."

Cliff slapped his hands on the table. "For the last time, I am NOT rich!"

His friends stare at him.

"...I just live in a mansion and have a lot of money."

"You know technically it's a villa, not a mansion." The kids turn around to face a young girl, around 13 years old, with shoulder length straight auburn hair, wearing a maroon colored t-shirt and jeans. She sits next to Cliff. "Mr. richboy here likes to make people think he's cool."

Cliff sighed. "Hey Laynie."

"Aw, you don't look too happy to see me." She laughed and punched him lightly. "You didn't miss your little sister?" Cliff shook his head, but jokingly.

"I'm happy to see you Laynie." Brandon said eagerly. Laynie looked him over. "Get a haircut and then maybe I'll allow it." Brandon put his hands over his head of thick red-brown hair. "No way man, this hair's not going anywhere."

Laynie giggled and turned to her cousin. "Max is looking for you." Amber nodded and picked up her phone. "I'll text him and let him know I'm over here" Her thumbs flew rapidly as she typed. Amber was the fastest texter Cliff had ever seen (or "textpert" as Brandon called her.) She could type out an entire paragraph in about ten seconds and had the most Instabook followers out of anyone in the school (most of her posts were glamour shots she had forced Cliff to take of her.) She didn't go a day without sending out a chirp, and was on chatsnap about 24/7.

"Are you and Max still together?" Roxy asked. "You know you're dad's gonna flip when he finds out you have a boyfriend."

Amber smiled mischievously. "Which is why NONE of you are going to tell him? Right?"

The four kids looked at each other with a knowing look. If word got out about Max and Amber's "relationship," they wouldn't only suffer the wrath of her father, but of Amber as well. And NONE of them wanted that. "Right." They agreed in unison.

"You talkin' bout me again?" A 16 year old boy with short blonde hair, wearing a plaid shirt, old jeans, and cowboy boots, walked up to them. Amber smiled at him. "Maybe just a little bit."

He sat down next to her. "Mornin' darlin'" he said with a thick southern accent. He kissed her on the cheek. Amber blushed, and Cliff and Roxy fake gagged at each other.

"And how're ya'll doin?" Max asked turning to them.

"Good." Laynie answered. The six of them continued conversation until the bell rang, indicating the end of lunch.

"Well we better get goin" Max said as he stood up. Amber stood up as well. They hugged, and then Max left with the other tenth graders.

"C'mon guys." Roxy motioned to Laynie and the boys as she began to clear her tray. They reluctantly stood up, threw their trash away, and headed for class.


	2. Meet the Parents

Chapter 2: Meet the Parents

Amber, Roxy, Cliff and Laynie walked home from school that afternoon, talking and laughing until they made it just outside Ninjago city. A large ship was resting amongst the trees. Four figures were on the deck of the ship, training. The kids smiled and climbed onboard.

FWOOSH! All four kids jumped back as a whirlwind of ice and snow flew past them. When it stopped spinning, it revealed Zane, the master of ice.

"Oh sorry, I didn't see you there." He apologized with a robotic smile.

"It's cool." Roxy spotted a black-clad ninja punching a punching bag on the other side of the deck.

She ran over to him and tapped him on the shoulder. He spun around with his fists out.

"Woah, woah woah!" She leaned back. "Watch it dude!"

"Watch it what?" Cole asked crossing his arms.

"I mean, watch it father dearest?" she said quickly.

Cole chuckled and ruffled her hair.

Cliff looked on at this scene in admiration. Laynie followed his gaze and laughed. "Why don't you tell her?"

Cliff turned around. "Tell her what?"

"You likes her!" Laynie smiled cheesily.

Cliff playfully pushed her shoulder. "Okay Laynie, I'll go tell her as soon as you go give Brandon a great big hug."

Laynie shuddered. "I'd rather die."

"Hey, hey!" The siblings turned to see the master of fire jog towards them. "How are my favorite nieces?"

"Uh, Uncle Kai, I'm a boy." Cliff said. Laynie burst into giggles.

"Right." Kai said, "favorite niece and _nephew._ What's your name again?" Laynie laughed even harder.

Kai smiled. "Nah, I'm just messin with ya!" He slapped Cliff on the back as he walked past him. "Where's Amber?" he asked. Amber had already left for the living space of the ship, most likely to look at her phone in peace. Cliff shrugged

"Amber!" Kai called out as he went into the house part of the ship. "Your mom has to work late tonight so we're eating noodles!"

Cliff rolled his eyes and turned to his sister, who was trying to compose herself. "It's not that funny." he said.

"I know," Laynie took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She opened one to look at him. He slowly raised one eyebrow and that set her off again. He smiled and laughed with her. "C'mon let's go find mom and dad, I'm dying of hunger and starvation."

"Wow," Laynie said with a giggle. "Hunger AND starvation. That sounds serious." Cliff nodded.

Just then Lloyd ran past them and called out, "Check the bridge, they said they were gonna upgrade something or somethin!"

"Thanks Lloyd!" Cliff shouted back to him. Lloyd saluted as he ducked under a robotic dummy swinging wooden swords.

"Bye Rox!" Laynie called to their friend. Roxy turned and waved, and the siblings grabbed their backpacks from her room, and ran outside and around the temple. A large ship was parked behind it. They could hear the sounds of hammers, drills, blow torches, and the occasional "ouch!"

Cliff and Laynie ran up the stairs to the bridge. Laynie slowly opened the door, but quickly closed it when a flying piece of metal almost hit her in the face. She cautiously pushed it open again, making sure the coast was clear.

The master of lightning slid out from under one of the control panels. "Sorry about that," he said as he stood up, wiping grease off his hands onto his blue jeans. "The metal slicer thingy wasn't working again.

"Sure…" Cliff responded, sarcastically. Laynie giggled. "Whatcha workin on dad?" She asked.

Jay sighed. "Well I wanted to amplify one of the rocket boosters a bit more, but then one of the circuits busted. So I came up here to check the control panel, and the metal slicing thingy went crazy and-"

"It's called a steel cutting saw, Jay." The kids turned to see the master of water enter the room. She handed Jay a socket wrench. "You'd know that if you read the instruction manual."

"A true inventor and fixer of things does not need an instruction manual" Jay announced, proudly. "Wait a minute, _instruction manual?_ There's no instruction manual, I built almost all of this stuff!"

Nya smiled and reached into her back pocket. "I made one!" She pulled out a folded up pamphlet and glanced over at the tangled mess of gears and wires coming out of the wall. "I had a feeling something like this would happen." She wiped some oil off his cheek and kissed him. Laynie stopped laughing. Her and Cliff immediately pretended to be interested in something outside. When he assumed the acts of affection had stopped, he turned towards his parents. "Can we go home and get food?" he asked.

Jay shook his head. "Not yet, we gotta finish up the Bounty and then we gotta stop by the school to get stuff ready for robotics club tomorrow." Nya taught robotics and led robotics teams and Master Wu's academy part time.

"But dad, he's dying of hunger and starvation!" Laynie protested, poking fun at his earlier statement. Cliff nodded.

"Go ahead and get them some food, Jay. I'll finish up here, then pass by the school real quick."

"You sure?" Jay asked.

"Yeah, it'll only take about an hour."

"Um. Alright!" Jay turned toward his kids. "So, what restaurant are we hittin up!"

"I meant food from home Jay!" Nya called out from under the control panel where she had begun to work.

Jay and the kids sighed. "Okay guys let's do it." Cliff and Laynie followed their father out the door. "See ya later!" Nya said.


	3. Pirates?

Chapter 3: Pirates?

"Welcome home Jay Walker, Cliff Walker, Laynie Walker." a robotic voice greeted as the three entered their house. The kids threw their backpacks on the couch and Jay whistled as he walked into the kitchen. "Alright, you guys cool with pizza?" He opened the freezer.

"Sure" Cliff and Laynie said in unison.

"BorgHome, turn on the oven." Jay called out to the smart home system. The oven promptly lit up, and Jay popped in a frozen pepperoni pizza.

Cliff turned toward the staircase. "I'm gonna go play some video games."

"Uh, no you're not!" Laynie grabbed his sweater and pulled him back. "We have a history project to work on. Misako wants us to have an outline by tomorrow."

Cliff groaned. "Why can't we put it off until the last possible second like we always do?"

Laynie gave him a look. "Remember your 4th grade science fair? You started building your rocket the night before, and it fell apart when you presented it."

Cliff frowned at the memory. "Well at least that was fun though. History is just a bunch of dead people." They knelt down by the coffee table. "Who we got?"

Laynie pulled out the piece of paper that read their assignment from her backpack. "We have to do a project on the history of…" She squinted at the paper. "Ninjago pirates."

Jay stuck his head out of the kitchen. "You're doing a project on _who_?"

"Ninjago pirates." Laynie repeated. "That sounds kind of fun."

Cliff shrugged. "Eh."

Jay seemed to be thinking hard about something. "Uh, that's cool, I guess." Then he quickly disappeared into the kitchen.

"Um, okay…" Laynie said with a little laugh. "So yeah, basically we have to research a bunch of different pirates and write an essay on them. We'll also need a visual aid, but all we need to come up with tonight is a general idea."

Jay poked his head out again. "Uh, maybe you could talk to Misako about assigning you a new topic?" He suggested hastily.

His kids looked up at him, confused. "Why?" Cliff asked.

"Well...ya know…" Jay walked into the room. "You know pirates, they're just so crazy and hard to study, and wouldn't you rather want to learn about like, skeletons of the underworld or something more exciting like that?"

"You got a problem with pirates or something?" Cliff replied.

"No, no, no, no of course not!" Jay answered quickly. "I just think you'd have more fun learning about something else."

Cliff and Laynie shook their heads. "Pirates sound cool." Laynie said. Jay shook his head and went back into the kitchen.

"Okay let's get this over with." Cliff grabbed his Cyrus PDA off the couch and typed "pirates" into the search bar. He scrolled through the results as his sister read them off. "Pirates of the Caribbean, A history of Ninjago's pirates, Captain Soto and the Destiny's Bounty-"

"Ooh look at that." Cliff pointed to the screen. "Sky pirates. What the heck are those?" He clicked on the link.

Jay ran into the room. "No don't-" but Cliff had already begun reading the article.

"The **Sky Pirates** are a crew of diverse goons that were brought together by their captain, Nadakhan, many years ago…"

Laynie froze as she heard him read that and a look of fear spread across her face. "You okay, Lay?" Jay asked. Laynie nodded quickly, ignoring the tears that pricked her eyes.

Cliff continued reading. "Long ago, the Sky Pirates were marooned across the Sixteen Realms by Captain Soto, who also imprisoned Nadakhan in the Teapot of Tyrahn-" Laynie cut him off. "Is the pizza ready yet dad?" Jay turned toward the kitchen as he heard the oven beep. "Yep!" he said and ran back into the kitchen.

"Uh, I was reading!" Cliff said, annoyed. Laynie nodded. "I know, but I think we should go eat." She quickly stood up and disappeared into the kitchen. Cliff watched her leave, confused. _What's wrong with her?_

That night, Laynie was sitting on her bed flipping through a book of blueprints, when she heard a knock on her door. "Yeah?"

Her mother opened the door. "Hey" she said.

"Hey," Laynie answered.

"Dad said you didn't look like you were feeling too good." Nya sat on the bed next to her daughter. "Are you okay?"

Laynie nodded. "Yeah,"

"Are you sure?"

"I'm fine, mom." Laynie closed the book and smiled.

Nya smiled back and kissed the the top of her head. "Get some sleep." She said. "You've got school tomorrow. She stood up and turned the light off as she left the room. Laynie waited till her footsteps faded away, then got up and turned on a small nightlight she kept behind her bed. She had built it when she was five years old, after having a nightmare that left her afraid of the dark. She didn't expect for it to work this long...or to need it this long. "Play my nighttime playlist quietly." She called to the BorgHome. Promptly, "The Weekend Whip" began to play softly over the built in speakers in the walls of her room. She knew that wasn't a nighttime song. That was the point. Anything to keep her awake. To keep her from falling asleep. To save her from the dreams.

An hour passed and eventually she dozed off. And that's when it happened.

 _Laynie fumbled around in a darkened room. She had no idea where she was or what was happening._ "Cliff?" _She called out._ "Amber? Roxy?" _No answer._ "Cliff?"

 _Suddenly, she heard a maniacal laugh coming from behind her. She turned to see the shadow of a large figure, who appeared to be floating about two inches off the ground, and had long dark hair pulled back into a ponytail._ "Their all gone, Laynie." _he said with a thick accent._ "You lost everybody. Your friends, your family," _he paused._ "Your brother." _Laynie gasped._ "What did you do to him? Where is he?" _The man laughed._ "Your brother is safe here with me Laynie. Your friends on the other hand…" _He tapped the long glowing sword in his hand._ "Weren't as fortunate." _Tears streamed down the girl's face as she shook her head._ "No…"

"You can end this Laynie. The pain, the suffering, the fear" _He smiled._ "All you have to do is wish it all away…"


	4. Earth

Chapter 4: Earth

"Laynie? Laynie?"

Laynie jumped up. "What?" She looked around. She was in her 8th grade writing class. Her friend Misti was nudging her. "What?" She repeated rubbing her eyes.

"You fell asleep." Misti whispered, trying not to be heard by the teacher.

"I did?"

"Yeah," Misti giggled. "Are you okay?"

Laynie nodded. "Yeah, I'm just tired."

"You sure look tired." Amelia leaned across the aisle. "How much sleep did you get last night?"

Laynie shrugged. "Like five hours or something, I don't know."

"That's not good honey!" Misti said with a country accent similar to her older brother's. "What happened?"

Laynie decided she needed to tell _somebody_ otherwise she felt like she was going to explode. She opened her mouth to tell her friends, but the teacher interrupted. "Girls please be quiet and pay attention." Laynie turned to her notebook, struggling to keep her eyes open as she took notes, but it was hard to stay awake.

The kids didn't go home to the Bounty together on Tuesday. The ninja only trained every _other_ afternoon since they all had to work. When school ended, Amber walked to the restaurant her mother, Skylor, owned in Ninjago City and waited there until Kai finished helping his father out at his blacksmith shop, and could come pick her up. Since their mom sometimes taught robotics at the academy, Cliff and Laynie stayed after school for about half an hour while she made sure everything was ready for her class the next day, and locked up. Then, they drove home with her and waited for Jay to return home from his job as an inventor at Borg Industries.

Roxy's living situation was a little different than her friends. Her and her father lived in a building on a floating piece of land, known as the Temple of Airjitzu. At one point, it had been the ninja headquarters, until they got the Bounty back up and running. A long rope ladder hung down for her to climb, since the only other way to get up there was by performing airjitzu. She let herself in, set her backpack down in the living room, then went into the kitchen to grab a snack, as usual. She microwaved some leftover mac and cheese from last night and leaned against the counter while she waited for it to heat up, music blasting through her earbuds. She almost didn't hear the knock at the door. She paused her music. It was Lloyd.

"Hey!" he greeted.

"Hey," Roxy answered casually, and went to retrieve her food from the microwave. Lloyd stopping for random visits at the temple was not at all unusual. He spent most of his days there, when he wasn't training with the ninja, just so he didn't have to sit around the Bounty alone while his mom was at work. Lucky for him, Roxy had the same problem. Cole spent most of his time working as a personal trainor at the Ninjago City gym, so Roxy was left alone quite often too. Amber tried to come over and hang out as much as she could, but her parents liked her to come home right after school so she could help out at her mother's noodle shop.

"How's it goin?" Lloyd asked.

Roxy shrugged. "Same old, same old." The microwave beeped, and she retrieved her food. She sat down on a barstool and began to eat. Lloyd sat next to her.

When Jay, Nya, Zane, and Kai got married, they moved out of the Bounty to start families in their own homes. Jay and Nya moved to the house Jay inherited from his late birth-father, Cliff Gordon (who they later named their son after) and Kai and Skylor bought an apartment in Ninjago City close to the noodle house. Zane and P.I.X.A.L. although they never had any children due to being robots, built a small cabin in the Birchwood forest, where they could live in the icy cold snow Zane loved so much. Master Wu and the Garmadons stayed living on the Bounty, and Cole decided to move back to the Temple of Airjitzu. Roxy never knew exactly why, but she didn't mind. She thought the temple was really cool. Lloyd didn't plan on ever having kids, or even getting married. He said he wanted to focus on being a good sensei and he felt "family life" would get in the way of that. The ninja knew it was because he never truly got over what happened with Hirumi, but of course the kids knew nothing about that.

"Let's go do something fun!" Lloyd suggested out of nowhere.

"Like what?" Roxy asked as she leaned over the counter and placed her bowl in the sink.

"Like…" Lloyd thought a minute. "I know!" He jumped up and ran down the hall. "Follow me!"

Confused, Roxy chased after him. He led her to the large training room.

"I'm gonna teach you how to break a board!" Lloyd announced.

"What? I can't do that!"

"I know, that's why I'm gonna teach ya." Lloyd grabbed a square wooden board about an inch thick, and held it out in front of him.

Roxy looked at him skeptically. "I don't know how to kick or anything."

"You don't have to kick, just do a simple palm heel strike."

She gave him a look, indicating she had no idea what he was talking about. Lloyd sighed. "It's like this." He stood next to her and demonstrated the stance and position of the move. "You just twist your hip, pivot your foot and strike with your palm." She copied his movements slowly.

"There you go!" Lloyd returned to his original place with the board. "Now break it."

Roxy took a deep breath, pulled her hand back, then stopped. "What if I hurt my hand?" she asked.

"If you do it the right way, you won't." Lloyd smiled. "I was worried about that my first time too. But I broke through about ten boards...and a table...and the floor." Roxy giggled.

"Just visualize your hand passing through the board." The sensei told her. Roxy nodded, took a deep breath, pulled her hand back, and closed her eyes. Then all at once, her body snapped into the motion, and she was delighted to hear the sound of cracking wood. She opened her eyes, excited to see the board split in two. But what she saw was not what she was expecting.

The board was indeed broken, perfectly down the middle in fact. But that was not the only thing broken. The space of floor underneath it was cracked as well. She looked up in astonishment and found Lloyd halfway across the dojo, looking bewildered. The crack from the floor ran up the wall and had shattered half of the windows. Lloyd stood up slowly.

"I'm sorry." Roxy said almost in a whisper. "I didn't mean to do that."

Lloyd shook his head. "No, no it's okay."

Roxy laughed a little nervously. "I didn't know I was that strong."

Lloyd didn't answer, just stared at the large rift in the flooring Roxy had created.


	5. Fire

Chapter 5: Fire

Amber walked through the streets of Ninjago City, staring at her phone screen. She had become a master at walking and chat snapping at the same time, without tripping, or bumping into people or running into stuff. She smiled as she opened a snap from Max. It was a selfie with the words "miss you" and a kissy face emoji captioned on it. She returned it with a selfie using the filter that gave you hearts around your head and typed "miss you too." She waited a few seconds while she watched him open her message. She tapped on the little red square that appeared next to a name that was just a sequence of random emojis. Amber had disguised his name so that when her parents intercepted her cell phone, they couldn't see who she was talking to.

"I can't wait to see you tomorrow." She sent to him. It took him a bit longer to answer this time. She was about to put her phone away when he sent her another snap. It read, "why wait until tmrw?" Confused, she looked up from her phone.

"Amber!" She heard someone call from behind her. It was Max! She ran over to him. "Max! What are you doing here?"

"Well of course I wanted to see you." He smiled. Amber blushed. "But I also wanted to see the noodle shop you talk about so much."

"Oh, uh you did?" Amber asked.

"Yeah," Max answered. "I've never seen where you live or met your folks before. We've been datin for six months now, don't you think it's time?"

Amber didn't answer. Max took her hand and began walking towards Master Chen's. "C'mon sweetheart it'll be fun!"

"Uh, we can't!" Amber pulled him back.

"Why not?"

"Because the restaurant is closed!" She said quickly. "Mom and dad aren't there they went home."

"Oh. Well, we could just go to your house then."

Amber stopped him. "No we can't! They're uh, sick so they can't have any visitors right now!"

Max sighed. "Honestly Amber, sometimes I think you don't want them to meet me."

"No, that's not it at all!"

That was exactly it. Kai had a strict rule that Amber couldn't date until she was sixteen. She thought that was unfair, since Roxy could date whenever she wanted, just nobody asked her out. Laynie and Cliff's parents never really talked about it, but Laynie said she didn't wanna waste her time with stupid boys anyway. Cliff thought he should be entitled to take a girl out, since Jay asked Nya out when they were around Cliff's age and it would be hypocrisy for them to tell him no. Amber had asked him why he hadn't asked Roxy out then yet, and he told her it was because he didn't wanna risk "rejection."

Max wasn't the first boy to like Amber. It seemed like every boy in the school had a thing for her. But she turned each one of them down, trying to obey her father's orders. And it surprised her how easy it actually was. Until Max enrolled at Wu's Academy. He was a freshman and Amber was in eighth grade. When she first heard of the "Lahey family" she didn't know what to think of them. They had eight kids, seven boys and one girl. They had been homeschooled their whole life on a small farm out in the middle of nowhere, until a farming accident left their father in a wheelchair and forced their family to move to Ninjago City, close to the hospital and Mrs. Lahey's new job. On the day Max was supposed to start school, Amber braced herself for a dirty, sweaty, dumb farm boy to be walking around the school. But one day, when she was walking out of her Literature classroom, she stopped dead in her tracks. A tall boy, with the most beautiful blue eyes she'd ever seen came around the corner. His blond hair was slicked back, and his jawline was so perfectly chiseled she thought he might be a walking Ken Doll. He nodded to her as he passed. "Howdy!" Amber realized she had been holding her breath and slowly let it out. "Howdy." she breathed.

She saw Max occasionally in the halls but never talked to him. Amber had never been a shy person, but now she felt like she couldn't say a word. What would he think of this small insignificant eighth grader? Granted, she was the most popular girl in school and had more than 331K followers, but still. She was nothing compared to him.

Max had a 12 year old sister named Misti, and her and Laynie immediately hit it off. Misti came home with Laynie to the Bounty all the time to hang out, and sometimes Max would come to pick her up. He started talking to Amber and they became good friends. Then the school year ended and they didn't see each other as much. Amber spent the whole summer worrying that he'd spend his vacation with some other girl and fall for her instead. But her first day of high school, Max ran to her in the hallway and hugged her, which startled her a bit. But she couldn't believe how big and strong his arms were for a sixteen year old. Later that day at lunch they sat together and caught up with everything they did over the summer. Amber mentioned going to the movie theater with Cliff and Roxy and Laynie to see the new "Moonfarer" movie which was the continuing story of "Starfarer." She was laughing about how stupid she thought the movie was, but how obsessed Cliff was with it. That's when Max reached across the table and took her hand. "Amber," he said, sounding a little nervous. "Would you like to go see a movie with me? A movie that's not about space fighters." he added. Amber froze. She knew what she supposed to say. She was only 15, her dad said she had to wait another year, but she didn't tell him that. She couldn't. She just looked into those dreamy eyes and nodded. "Yeah. I'd like that a lot."

They'd been going out ever since then. Amber sneaking out or telling her parents she was going somewhere with Roxy. Max didn't know he was a secret, and things were going fine just the way they were. Until he started asking about her family and wanting to meet them. Amber constantly had excuses and reasons why they couldn't see him. But she really didn't know how much longer she could keep this up.

Amber smiled at him. "I'd rather just be alone with you right now." they sat down on a park bench together.

"Amber what's goin on?" Max asked.

"Nothing's going on!"

"Are you sure?" he asked. "You've been actin a little strange lately."

"No I haven't!" Amber's voice began to raise, her signature hot temper rising. Max chuckled and placed a finger to her lips. "Sh, sh, sh. I'm sorry." he said.

Amber blushed again. "I'm sorry."

Max tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear. "It's okay. Everyone has bad days." There was a moment of silence as they gazed at each other. She smiled. He didn't smile, he just began to lean forward. Amber knew what was about to happen. She wanted to let it happen. But for some reason she couldn't. She pulled away. He looked up at her confused.

"Um, I better go." She kissed him on the cheek, stood up and began to walk away. "See you tomorrow!" Then she ran off towards the noodle house, leaving her boyfriend on the bench, unsure of what just happened.

Amber ran until she was out of Max's sight. Then she stopped to catch her breath. She felt bad for leaving him but she couldn't take it anymore. The lying was beginning to be too much. She paused when she saw the restaurant. The lights were off and a large neon sign in the window read "CLOSED" She glanced at her phone. "It's only 6" she said to herself.

A bell above the door jingled as she entered the shop. She looked around. The place was empty. No customers, no waiters, no Skylor.

"Mom?" she called out.

"Hello Amber." A small yellow light shone above one of the tables to reveal her mother sitting in the booth.

"Hello?" Amber asked, not sure of what was happening.

"Come sit." Skylor pointed to the booth across the table. Confused Amber sat.

"It's six o'clock." Skylor said.

"It's actually 6:01-" Amber began.

"Don't be smart with me Amber." Skylor was stern. "You were supposed to be here at 4:00. Why are you late?"

"I went to 4Weapons to see dad." Amber quickly said.

"No you didn't." Another light turned on revealing Kai sitting in the booth next to Skylor. Amber jumped. "What the heck?"

"Where'd you go Amber?" her father asked.

"Nowhere!" Amber answered. Just then her phone rang. She pulled it out to turn the ringer off but Skylor snatched it out of her hand.

"Hey!" Amber tried to grab it back but Skylor held it out of her reach. "You get it back when you tell us what you were doing." She looked at the screen "Max' can wait." Amber cringed. She forgot nicknames don't show as the caller ID.

"Who's that?" Kai asked.

"Nobody!" Amber said quickly. "He's just a friend from school."

"Is he who you were with?" Kai asked.

"No! I wasn't!"

"Then where were you?"

"OH MY GOSH WHY DON'T YOU GUYS JUST LEAVE ME ALONE?!" Amber practically screamed.

"Amber…"

"You guys are so annoying, you're always telling me what to do, and NEVER let me have any fun!"

Skylor is starting to get frustrated. "That is not true Amber, you get to do a lot of things other girls don't get to do."

"Oh yeah, like what?"

Skylor is about to rattle off a list, when Amber's phone dings. Kai lifts it up to read the text. Amber reached out to stop him but couldn't get the phone.

"Hey darlin, I hope you're feeling okay. I don't know what I did to make you upset but I hope I can make things right. These past six months that we've been together have been the best time of my life and I'm so lucky to have a wonderful girl like you. I don't want any of that to change. If you'll forgive me, I was wonderin if you wanted to have a picnic in the park this weekend, just the two of us. Love you sweetheart!"

Amber stood up to get out of there as quick as possible, but Kai stood up as well.

"Kai…" Skylor reminded her husband to keep his cool.

"The past _six months_?" Kai stuck the phone in front of his daughter's face. "That's where you've been disappearing off to!"

Amber shook her head. Tears forming in her eyes. "No daddy, no it's not what it looks like!"

Kai's face was burning red. "IT'S EXACTLY WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE! YOU'VE BEEN DATING WHEN I SPECIFICALLY SAID YOU HAD TO BE SIXTEEN!"

Skylor stood up and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Kai honey, calm down you're scaring her." Kai stopped and took a breath. "Look Amber-"

"You think I'm scared of him?" Amber gave a small chuckle. "I'm not scared of him! I'm not scared of either of you! And I'm done following your STUPID RULES!" She slammed her hands down on the table. Suddenly the whole booth burst into flames.

"Skylor!" Kai grabbed his wife by the arm and pulled her out of the way. She quickly used the elemental water she had absorbed from Nya using the power of amber, to put out the fire. Amber stood in the midst of the burned wood, untouched by the flames.


	6. Lightning and Water

Chapter 6: Lightning and Water

"DIE ZOMBIES!"

"YOU ARE NO MATCH FOR MY PEPPERONI CANNON!"

"BOOM!" Cliff slammed his video game controller down on the coffee table. "I won, again!"

"You only won because you didn't stop to help me. Dad hit me with his cannon." Laynie said, upset.

Cliff shrugged. "It doesn't matter. The object of the game is to deliver as many pizzas as possible in a short amount of time, without getting eaten by zombies and that's what I did."

"No," Laynie shook her head. "You're supposed to let your whole _team_ deliver their pizzas, without getting eaten by zombies or attacked by the other team." She pointed to her father. "Which I was!"

"I can do it so much faster by myself though." Cliff sighed. "I'm not used to being on a team."

"Well you better _get_ used to it." Laynie sat down on the couch.

"Dad, tell Laynie to stop being a brat."

"Tell Cliff to stop being such a baby."

"Hey," Jay stood between them. "Chill out you guys. We have time for one more round but we're not gonna play if you can't be nice." He turned to his daughter. "Laynie, stop being such a brat," To his son. "Cliff stop being such a baby."

Cliff sat back on the couch with a scowl. "Fine." but he stuck his tongue out at his sister when Jay's back was turned.

"Hey party people," Nya walked in the game room. "It's bedtime."

Cliff and Laynie groaned.

"Just five more minutes?" Jay pleaded.

Nya laughed and tousled his auburn hair. "Sorry but your kids have school tomorrow." She nodded towards the door. "C'mon let's go."

Cliff slumped off the couch and pressed the power button on the remote. Laynie stood up slowly and silently. The two teens said goodnight to their parents, then made their way up stairs.

"Pirates!" Cliff exclaimed out of nowhere. Laynie jumped back way more than necessary. "What?"

"Pirates." Cliff repeated. "We didn't do our history homework!"

"Oh, hehe" Laynie looked uneasy. "I guess we didn't. Oh well, guess we'll just fail this one!" She went into the bedroom and began closing the door, but her brother stopped her.

"Just fail? Since when does Miss 'straight A math and science whiz' _just fail?"_

The thirteen year old shrugged. "History isn't as important. Like you said, it's just dead people." She shut the door. Cliff stood in silence for a moment, then shook his head and went into his own room across the hall, to finish their team assignment by himself.

"Nya?"

"Mm hm?"

Jay was in his bedroom, at his desk, looking through his next day's schedule at Borg Industries on his laptop. Nya was on the bed, also on her laptop, deciding what to teach in her robotics class tomorrow. Neither one of them looked up.

"Has Laynie been acting kinda strange lately, or is it just me?"

Nya shrugged. "I don't know, I mean she's been a little jumpy, and doesn't look like she's getting very much sleep. I thought she might not be feeling well but she told me she was fine."

"Huh." Jay spun around in his spinny chair to face his wife. "She just hasn't been seeming like her usual happy self."

Nya glanced up for a moment. "It could just be a phase. Plus I know she's been stressed out over school and stuff."

"Oh yeah, speaking of school, you know how her and Cliff have that partnered history project thing?"

"Yeah?"

"Well guess who they got assigned to research?"

Nya looked at him. "Who?"

"Adakhanay." Jay said, referring to the way he and Nya used to speak about their adventure with the sky pirates in pig latin when they lived with the other ninja.

Nya closed her laptop. "Nadakhan?" She practically whispered.

Jay nodded. "I mean, I guess it's not a big deal right? Nobody else remembers and as long as Clouse stays locked up in Kryptarium he can't find the teapot and release him"

"Now that I'm thinking about it, Laynie's been trying to avoid doing her homework for the past couple days. I'd expect that maybe from Cliff, but not her. She always gets everything done. Do you think it has something to do with the history project?"

"Probably not." Jay turned back to his computer. "Why would she care about Nadakhan if she barely even knows anything about him?"

Later that night, a clap of thunder rolled across the dark sky followed by a huge flash of lightning. Cliff was woken up by the loud noises. He rushed to his window and was delighted to see the branches of the trees scraping his window because of the harsh wind. He ran across the hall into Laynie's room. She loved thunderstorms as much as he did, probably even more.

Laynie!" He whispered as he opened her door. She was still asleep. He crept over to her. "Hey Laynie."

She mumbled something in her sleep, but he couldn't understand what she said.

"What?"

Laynie began tossing and turning in her bed. "Your wish...your wish…"

Cliff was starting to get nervous. "Laynie? Are you okay?"

Her eyes shot open. "Cliff?" She called out.

"I'm right here Laynie what's wrong?"

"He's coming…" She whispered.

"What? Who's coming?" Cliff asked, concerned.

"The wish man." Laynie told him in distress. "He's coming for us!"

Cliff turned the lamp on by her bed. "I think you just had a bad dream."

Laynie shook her head. "No, it's not a dream!" She rolled over and began sobbing in her pillows.

"Uhhhh, how about I go get mom?" Cliff wasn't sure what was going on but it was weirding him out.

"No!" Laynie sat up and grabbed his arm. Suddenly, a huge jolt of energy shocked him and he was thrown on the ground. He grabbed his arm which was vibrating violently.

"What's the matter with you?" He yelled. Laynie proceeded to cry and the storm outside picked up.

Downstairs, Jay and Nya were awakened by a loud thump on the ceiling above them.

"We're being robbed!" Jay shouted as he jumped out of bed. "Nya, get the kids I'll get the baseball bat!"

He ran out of the room before Nya could tell him to stop. She had built a top notch security system to protect the house, if anyone had broken in, they would know. Still, she kept a cautious eye out as she ascended the stairs.

"Hey guys?" She called out to her kids. She peeked in Laynie's room. "What's going on?"

Cliff struggled to stand up. "Something's messed up with Laynie, she was sleep talking and then she was crying and then she was yelling at me and then she friggin ELECTROCUTED me!"

"She what?" Nya was confused.

"Electrocuted me!" Cliff responded. She grabbed my arm and it was all 'zappity zap' and I'm pretty sure I saw my bones for like half a second!"

Nya turned to her daughter. "Laynie, honey, are you alright?" Laynie had stopped crying and now stared blankly at the wall. "Laynie?"

Nya looked down at her daughter's hands which were glowing a silvery blue. She reached out tentatively but pulled her hand back when Laynie's palm produced a tiny lightning bolt. Cliff stared at his sister.

"She can-" he was interrupted by Jay running into the room, swinging a metal baseball bat wildly, barely missing his son's head.

"AHA! Got you thief!" He hit nothing and almost fell over. He looked up to see the faces of his family, even Laynie, who was starting to come back to reality.

"Oh hehe…" He set the bat down and dusted off his blue striped pajamas. "Well uh, at least we know that if there _was_ a crook in the house I'd be able to stop him!" he waited for them to laugh at his clumsiness, but they all had a very serious expression on their face. "Is something wrong?"

"Laynie could you do that again?" Nya asked.

"I don't know." Laynie finally spoke. She turned to her brother. "I'm sorry I shocked you."

"Wait _shocked_ him?" Jay was confused. "What do you mean?"

Laynie got off her bed shakily. "I touched his arm, and then some electricity came out of my hand and shocked him."

Jay's eyes grew wide, and though he tried to keep a straight face, a small smile curled on the edge of his lips.

"Does she have…" Cliff looked at his sister in disbelief. "Lightning powers?"

"Maybe." Jay said.

"We need to take her to Lloyd." Nya said. "He'll know what to do."

"Wait what about me?" Cliff asked.

"What do you mean?" Jay asked.

"Well if Laynie has elemental powers, then shouldn't I-"

He was interrupted by a loud roll of thunder, and then the heavy rain began to pour.


	7. New Elemental Masters

Chapter 7: New Elemental Masters

Roxy sat on a chair in the living room of the Destiny's Bounty, holding a mug ofhot tea, but not really drinking it. After her and Lloyd had fully processed what happened in the training room of the temple, they immediately called Cole at the gym. He told Lloyd to take Roxy back to the Bounty, and he would meet them there as soon as he could, along with Zane and PIXAL, who had been invited by Misako to dinner. They were all talking at once, trying to make sense of the situation, when Zane finally suggested that, Roxy had inherited her father's elemental abilities, in the same way each of the ninja were descended from an original elemental master. Lloyd seemed excited. He had always wanted to train Roxy as a ninja to maybe even have her _become_ one one day, and now he had a reason. Cole thought they should slow down and not jump to anything yet, and Zane and PIXAL agreed with him. Roxy had stayed pretty calm throughout this whole thing, but now she wasn't sure what to do. Should she tell Cliff and Amber and Laynie? Would they be jealous or mad, or worse...afraid of her? By the time they had figured out what was going on, it was getting late, and Cole thought they should just spend the night at the Bounty, just in case anything else happened and they needed Lloyd or Wu's advice. Misako had made a bed for Roxy on the floor but the teenage girl was having a hard time falling asleep. She took a slow sip of cocoa as she stared into the cold, empty, fireplace.

 _What if I CAN train with Lloyd and become a ninja?_ She thought. _I've always wondered what it was like to fight bad guys and defend the city._ She smiled, picturing herself, climbing mountains to save some handsome young man who was kidnapped by an evil enemy. For some reason, this "handsome young man" kept coming out to look like Cliff in her mind. She tried to change it, but she couldn't and had no idea why. _It's probably just cause I see him everyday so his face is just imbedded in my mind. Or maybe it's cause…_ She shook her head. " _Nope! Definitely imbedded._

Cole entered the room and sat in a chair next to her. "Hey." he said .

"Hey."

"You okay?"

Roxy looked up at him. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

Cole shrugged. "I don't know, it's been kind of a crazy day and I just wanna make sure you're alright."

Roxy gave a small smile. Yeah, I'm alright." They were both silent for a moment. "Hey dad?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think, if these new 'powers' are all that they seem to be, I could learn to be a ninja?"

Cole patted his daughter's shoulder. "I don't know yet Rox. We're still trying to figure this all out. And uh," he leaned closer to her. "Maybe don't tell the other kids about this just yet. You know, we don't want everyone going crazy over it."

"Oh yeah of course." Roxy said, not entirely sure if she was going to obey her father's council. She shivered and pulled the sleeves of her gray sweatshirt down to cover her arms.

"It's getting a little chilly in here." Cole remarked as he stood up. "Should I light a fire?"

"You won't need to." The door flew open and a soaking wet Smith family ran inside. The room suddenly got very warm.

"Kai? What are you guys doing here, it's the middle of the night!" Cole exclaimed.

"Where's Lloyd?" Kai asked breathlessly. "And what are _you_ doing here?"

"Lloyd's asleep" Roxy answered, setting her cocoa mug on the coffee table and standing up. "Are you guys okay?"

"Everything's fine we just need Lloyd." Skylor answered looking worried about something. Roxy noticed Amber standing silently by the door. She walked over to her. "Hey what's going on?" She whispered. Amber shook her head and turned away. Roxy was confused. Her and Amber had been best friends their entire lives and when something happened to Amber, Roxy was first to know about it. When they were eight years old, they swore an oath to tell eachother everything. _Then aren't you breaking your promise by keeping your new powers a secret?_

The sound of wind picked up outside, and Lloyd came grumbling out of his room. "What is SO important that it couldn't wait till morning?"

Kai grabbed his daughter and pulled her over to Lloyd. "She's got fire powers."

Lloyd stared for a moment. Amber shrugged out of her father's arms. "And that's a problem why?" Lloyd asked.

"She blew up part of my restaurant!" Skylor stepped forward.

"What, no way!" Roxy exclaimed.

"No way what?' Amber asked.

Cole gave a small sigh. "We think Roxy may have inherited some of my elemental abilities."

Amber looked at Roxy wide-eyed. Roxy smiled. "We don't think so, we know so! It was crazy, I split the floor in the training room at the temple!"

"You did?" Amber asked. Roxy nodded excitedly.

"Great, next thing you know Jay's gonna burst in here saying-" Kai was interrupted by a loud crack of lightning and the door slamming open once again. This time it was the Walkers who stood in the doorway, however they seemed unaffected by the storm.

"Lloyd we need you it's an emergency!" Jay said.

"Let me guess," Lloyd replied. Laynie and Cliff suddenly have elemental abilities."

"Uh, yeah." Jay answered. "How did you know?"

Lloyd gestured to the two other teenagers. "Meet the newest masters of fire and earth."

Jay's jaw dropped. Cliff and Laynie looked at eachother. "Cool…" They both said in unison.

A few minutes later, everyone was seated around the dining room table in the Destiny's Bounty. Because of the storm, Zane and P.I.X.A.L. had decided to stay the night at the Bounty as well and return home in the morning. Now they were awake and had been informed of the events of the evening. Wu and Misako had not been awakened by the commotion, but the ninja didn't feel the need to bother the elderly pair.

"So what are we gonna do?" Nya asked.

"Train them as ninja?" Lloyd asked eagerly.

"Well maybe that's not the best idea…" Cole began.

"That's a great idea!" Jay seemed almost as excited as Lloyd.

"Well we have to do something." Kai said. "They don't know how to control it."

Cliff stood up on his chair. "Excuse me! I don't know about these girls, but I think I can handle this 'power' thing by myself." Just then, a jet of water shot out of his hand, spraying an already soaking Amber who was wrapped up in a towel trying to get dry.

"Thanks." Amber said sarcastically. Cliff sat down sheepishly. "Okay maybe I need some help."

"You think?" She asked, annoyed.

"Okay how about this," Lloyd told everyone. "You kids come here after school and I'll start teaching you how to control your powers. If all goes well, then great. If it doesn't, then, well, that'll be a problem."

"That does seem like the most sensible thing to do." Zane added. After a moment of thought, the ninja all nodded.

"Wait guys, are you sure you really wanna do this?" Cole asked, looking a bit worried.

The four new elemental masters exchanged a look and then nodded.

"Yeah." Laynie said. "We want to do this."


	8. Stupid Cowboy

Chapter 8: Stupid Cowboy

The ninja had been hesitant about letting the kids go to school the next day. They were worried about the other students safety if one of their powers went out of hand. But Lloyd thought as long as they acted normally and stayed calm they'd be fine. Plus, Laynie had a science test she'd been studying for weeks and she was NOT willing to miss it. Cliff, Laynie, Amber, and Roxy couldn't wait for school to get out. All day they smiled and giggled about their newfound abilities that they swore to their parents they would keep a secret from everybody. Cliff almost blew it when Brandon asked what he did last night, but luckily Roxy was there to subtly remind him to shut up.

Amber had been trying to avoid Max all day and so far she had been successful. Until lunch. She was sitting at her usual table with her friends, when she heard him call her name. She pretended not to hear and continued telling Laynie about the new makeup she wanted to buy that weekend. "Something 'firey" she said with a wink. Laynie giggled. "Amber!" Max called again.

"Uh, Amber I think Max wants to talk to you." Brandon told the red head. "Be quiet Brandon." Amber responded absentmindedly.

"Amber that was kind of rude." Roxy told her friend. Amber shrugged and studied her plate of food very intensely. "Did you guys notice that these plates are green and not white today?"

Max ran up to her. "Hey Amber did you get my text?" Amber ignored him. Max sighed. "Look, I'm sorry about yesterday okay? I should've asked you before I just stormed up on you and demanded to meet your parents. Now can you please talk to me again?"

Amber paused for what felt like a long time and then stood up to face him. "No." She said very seriously.

"What?"

"No." She repeated. "I will _not_ talk to you again Max Lahey. I will _not_ go out with you again, and I definitely will _never_ EVER kiss you."

Max was confused. "I don't understand…"

"Don't you EVER come near me, or talk to me or even LOOK at me again,you stupid cowboy!"

"Amber I-"

"GO AWAY!" Amber yelled, pointing toward the door. "JUST GET OUT OF HERE!" Suddenly a ball of fire shot out of her hand and hit the trash can, sending it up in flames. The students screamed and Amber froze.

Max held up his hands. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!." He raced away out the cafeteria door.

Nobody moved or said a word for a few seconds. Then the cafeteria erupted in screams, shouts, teachers scrambling for the fire extinguisher or trying to direct the kids outside.

Amber's eyes filled with tears and she ran out of the room. A teacher approached the table. "Come on children we must evacuate the building." Cliff and Laynie looked at Roxy with a "what do we do?" look. "I got this." Roxy mouthed. Then she slipped away without any teachers seeing to go find her friend. The Walker kids and Brandon were led outside by the teacher.

Roxy didn't need to look for Amber very long. She knew where she would be. The place every teenage girl who has tears to shed flees to: the bathroom. Roxy pushed the squeaky door to the girls restroom open. She could hear Amber's sobs from inside the largest stall. "Amber?" She called out.

"Go away." Amber mumbled.

"Amber it's me. It's Roxy."

Amber sniffed. "What are you doing here?"

Roxy stood by the stall door and peeked through the crack between the door and the wall. "Well you just kind of told Max off...really harshly."

"He deserved it."

"What did he do?" Roxy asked. Amber didn't say anything. Just burst into another fit of tears.

"Amber, if he did something to you, you need to tell me. Because if he hurt you…"

"No, no, no!" Amber quickly protested. "Max didn't do anything!"

Roxy took a step back as she heard Amber unlocking the door. After a moment she emerged from inside. Her cheeks were stained with tears and running mascara. "Max didn't do anything." She repeated quietly.

"Then what happened?" Roxy asked.

Amber took a shaky breath. "My dad found out about him." She told her friend. "And he was not happy about it."

"Oh." Roxy didn't really know what to say. "That sucks."

"Yeah, it does." Amber nodded through her tears. "He took my phone for a month and I'm gonna lose all my chatsnap streaks and Max is gonna think I hate him when it's not even his fault and-"

Roxy wrapped her arms around Amber and let her sob into her shoulder. "It's okay Am." She soothed. "It's gonna be okay." She paused a moment, then asked. "Why can't you just tell him the truth?"

Amber pulled away. "Because if I tell him my dad doesn't want us together and I'm in trouble because of it, he's gonna try to fix it. He'll go talk to my dad and just make him more mad at me. Plus I just set the school on fire, so dad can add that to his list of 'Amber's screw-ups."

"You don't know that." Roxy told her. "Why did you yell the way you did? You could've just talked to him."

"Because I don't know how, Roxy! I don't know how to talk to people."

"But you talk to me."

"Yeah but that's because I'm not afraid of you."

"Um, thank you?" Roxy leaned against the wall. "Have you talked to your parents?"

"What? Heck no!" Amber ran her fingers under her eyes, trying to wipe away the smudged makeup, but only succeeded in making it worse. "I can't talk to them! 1) It's awkward, and 2) My dad's just gonna end up yelling at me anyway. That's all he does. Yells at me because he hates me."

"Amber, your dad doesn't hate you." Roxy said. "I think he has some communication issues too, if anything, he's worse than you are. Just go to him and let him know how you feel."

Amber shook her head. "It's not that easy." She sighed. "Of course, how would you know, you've got the perfect dad who's ready to do absolutely anything for you no matter what."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"When was the last time you were grounded, Rox? Huh? Never! Your dad doesn't care what you do, or who you're with."

"Or maybe I'm just a good kid!" Roxy rose her voice. She was about to say some words that would probably break her "good kid" track record, but the door swung open, and a little girl who looked to be around fourth grade age walked in. She stared at them for a moment and they stared back. They waited for her to take care of her business and wash her hands in silence. When she finally left, Roxy spoke again, quieter this time.

"The reason my dad cares about me so much is because he has to." She said. "You're dad may be easily upset with you, but at least you have a-"

"You're right." Amber's expression softened. "I'm sorry, Roxy. I shouldn't have taken it out on you."

Roxy gave a small smile. "It's fine." She studied her best friend's face for a moment. "Here, let's clean up your face and slip you into the crowd outside." Roxy led her to the sink. "Hopefully no one saw who actually started the fire."

Amber smirked. "You mean the way no one's gonna notice the broken sink?"

"What?" Roxy looked down at the sink she was resting her hands on. The marble had cracked and a few spikes of stone were jutting out of it. She lifted her hands and giggled a little nervously. "Maybe we should just leave school early." She said. Then the two girls laughed and hugged each other before running down the hall hoping to remain unnoticed among the crowd of kids.

"There she is!" They heard someone yell from behind them. They stopped in their tracks. "Darren…" They muttered in unison before slowly turning around to face him.

Long before any of the ninja got married, Darreth proposed for the tenth time to famous news anchor Gayle Gossip, and this time for some strange reason she accepted. They were married for ten years before their sudden and "out of nowhere" (as Darreth put it) divorce. The ninja had seen it coming for years, knowing the sort of person Darreth was. Gayle was no engaged to her second husband Fred Finley, but her and Darreth still shared custody of their 14 year old son, Darren, and he was basically a miniature version of his father. He was annoying, full of himself, and completely obsessed with Amber. He _hated_ Max for obvious reasons, and was constantly trying to get in the way of his plans, but somehow never could. He was the school troublemaker and the "ninja kid" group wanted nothing to do with him.

"There's the fire starter!" Darren pointed Amber out to a teacher.

"Dude, what are you doing?" Roxy asked. "She just broke up with Max, she's available now! Why are you trying to get her in trouble?"

"Popularity!" Darren answered, running a hand through his excessively styled dark hair. "If I can be the guy who 'caught' the school metahuman, I'll be a hero!" He turned to the teacher. "Don't worry teach, I got her!" He began to run towards the girls. They tried to run away, but were soon surrounded by a circle of kids who wanted to see them get caught. Darren almost had Amber's arm when suddenly he let out a shriek and fell onto the hard floor. The students gasped. The sound of sirens and firemen could be heard from outside. Darren found himself sitting in a puddle of water. "Where the frick did this come from?"

Amber and Roxy noticed Cliff at the edge of the crowd. He winked at them. Darren tried to stand up but just slipped and fell again. The kids began to laugh. "This isn't funny!" Darren cried. "I bet they did this to me!" He pointed to Roxy and Amber. "I demand they be arrested!"

"You can't arrest a kid for spilling some water." Brandon said.

"Oh yeah? Says who?"

"Try my grandpa, the head of the Ninjago Police Department." Brandon crossed his arms across his chest.

"W-well," Darren sputtered. "They should still get suspended! Professor Noble!" He began calling for the teacher in charge of "containing" Amber. But he stopped when a spark of electricity hit him in the nose.

Laynie stepped out of the group of people. "Darren, why don't you just shut up!" She then proceeded to shock him until his perfect hair was standing up and every movement sent little tremors throughout his body. The whole school was here now, laughing. Darren stumbled to his feet and ran away. "Metahumans! They're all metahumans!"

Laynie giggled and turned to Amber and Roxy but found herself face to face with none other than her mother, and she looked angry.

"Oh." Laynie said, almost in a whisper. "Hi mommy." The other three kids waved with nervous smiles.

Nya pointed down the hall. "You four, my classroom, NOW."

"But Mom," Cliff protested. "The cafeteria is on fire!"

"Oh well, looks like you're an expert master of water so I think you'll be okay." Nya said sarcastically as she led them into a robotics classroom and slammed the door shut.


	9. Here Comes the Dummy!

Chapter 9: Here Comes the Dummy!

"What happened to keeping your powers a secret? I get you don't have complete control yet, and Amber's fire was an accident, but Cliff and Laynie you two knew perfectly well what you were doing! Ugh, we should've kept you home today, I don't know why Lloyd won't listen to me!"

Roxy, Cliff, Amber and Laynie stood in silence while Nya chewed them out in her robotics classroom. The rest of the school had evacuated while the fire department came to put out the fire in the cafeteria.

"You disobeyed us by using your powers at school, and not only that, you used them to _hurt_ one of your classmates!"

"Well you hurt people all the time with your ninja stuff." Cliff stated.

Nya was losing her patience. "I use my powers to hurt _bad guys."_ she said.

"But Darren's a bad guy!" Laynie protested. "He's a jerk!"

"He just wants attention." Amber added.

"Well his wish came true because he got it." Roxy stifled a laugh, remembering how pathetic Darren looked on the floor, getting attacked by Laynie and Cliff. The other kids smiled. But Nya wasn't smiling.

"I'm giving all four of you detention." She said firmly. "And besides school and training with Lloyd, my kids are grounded for two weeks."

Cliff and Laynie immediately began complaining, but they stopped when they saw the look on her face. She turned to the other girls. "Your parents can think of your punishments later. You can go to the Bounty today, since Lloyd is expecting you, but tomorrow you'll stay after to help repair the cafeteria."

The four kids nodded, not wanting to argue with her. The firemen cleared up the lunchroom, and told the teachers it was safe to continue the school day. The kids began walking down the hall towards their classes.

"You know what?" Roxy asked.

"What?" Cliff responded.

Roxy smiled. "I can't wait for this afternoon."

Since Nya was at school, she drove the teens to where the Bounty usually was located instead of making them walk. Lloyd was waiting for them.

"Hey guys!" He high fived them all. "You ready?"

"Yeah!" They were ecstatic.

"Okay well let's jump right in!" Lloyd stood in front of his new pupils. "Close your eyes." They did. "And search yourself. Find your center. When you feel that power, _harness it._ "

"Do you know what he's saying?" Amber whispered to Laynie. Her cousin giggled and shook her head. "No idea."

"Amber!" Lloyd continued. "There is a burning flame within you. But you have to kindle it. Not with anger, but with patience." Amber scowled slightly.

"Roxy, you are strong. You can move the earth beneath you. Find that strength within you and never let anything weaken you." Roxy smiled.

"Cliff, feel the flow of the water all around you. You can control the flow, even reverse it, but always remember, a river doesn't run all on it's own." Cliff wasn't exactly sure what he meant by that.

"And Laynie," Lloyd continued. "You are fast. Quick. Although you may seem hidden in the clouds, you can strike down and shock anything that gets in your way." Laynie seemed to be thinking about something.

"Okay open your eyes!" Lloyd clapped his hands together. "Now that we got through the deep wise, sayings about 'inner peace' and all that stuff we can start teaching you how to fight!"

"I thought we were just controlling our powers." Laynie said, sounding a little nervous. "No one said anything about fighting."

Roxy walked up to a punching bag. "I'm cool with fighting. If we're gonna 'control' this elemental stuff, we might as well learn some other ninja things." She punched the bag. "C'mon it'll be fun."

Cliff realized this could be his chance to impress Roxy. If she was into all this fighting stuff, then he was gonna show her how wicked good he was at it. Or hoped he was.

"Yeah guys," Cliff ran attempting a jumping spin sidekick, but only fell hard onto the wooden deck. Laynie and Amber laughed. Cliff's head was spinning and everything was blurry.

"You alright?"

"Huh?" It took Cliff's vision a second to focus out, but when it did he saw Roxy standing over him, holding her hand out.

He gulped. "Uh, yeah." He took her hand and suddenly it felt like the whole world stopped. She pulled him to his feet in what seemed like slow motion. She smiled with her perfectly straight, white toothed smile, and her black hair bounced around her shoulders. Cliff noticed how pretty her dark brown eyes were and then all of a sudden he was back on his feet and everything was normal again. Amber was smirking and Laynie still giggling. Cliff shot his sister a look and she stopped.

"Not exactly like that." Lloyd said. He ran across the deck and grabbed what appeared to be three wooden boards. He set them up on the mat so they looked sort of like little benches. Then he rolled a large double sided machine to the middle of the room. Then, he pulled out a fighting dummy and placed it at the end of his "obstacle course."

"This is the training course." He announced. "Complete it using your powers the best you can." He grabbed a mug of coffee off the table behind him. "But you have to do it before I finish my coffee."

Amber looked skeptical. "You're gonna drink _four_ cups of coffee?" she asked. "That's a lot of caffeine."

"I need it." Lloyd told her. "You guys kept me up all night." he smiled. "Amber you're first."

"What? Oh, okay." Amber approached the training course. She began running at it. "What do I do?" she called out.

"It's easy, over the planks, dodge the swords, here comes the dummy!"

"SWORDS?"

"They're wooden, relax!"

Amber leapt over the planks, but she didn't get far. She stumbled and fell. Lloyd set his mug down with emphasis. "Failed!" He announced.

"That's not fair it was my first time!" Amber whined.

Lloyd ignored her. "Next!"

Roxy was next. She made it over the planks by attempting to create small mountains to help her, but they were really just piles of dirt. She ran past the machine which began spitting wooden weapons at her.

"Ow!"

"Use your element!" Lloyd said as he sipped. "Let it guide you." Roxy closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and got clubbed in the head with a sword.

"Failed! Next!"

The Walker siblings looked at each other.

"Rock Paper Clamp?" Laynie suggested, knowing what her brother was thinking. He wanted her to go first so he could see how dangerous it is before he decided to do it.

"Sure." He stuck his hand out in the "rock" position. Laynie's was paper. She grabbed his hand pretending to smother it. "You lose!" she laughed. "Have fun ninja dude!" She shoved him towards the course.

Cliff scowled then trudged across the room. "How does paper even beat rock?" He grumbled. "It doesn't make any sense."

"That's what I've been saying my whole life!" Lloyd refilled his coffee mug. Cliff tried to "search himself" and "feel the flow" but he had no idea what the heck that meant, so he just gave up and started running. He jumped over the planks easily, and remembered where and when each sword popped out of which hole in the machine. The only reason he could do that was because he had helped his dad build it when he was little. He made it past the swords and approached what was known as "the dummy" which just seemed to be a plastic man on a pole. _I can handle this easy._ He thought. He lifted his hands, and concentrating as hard as he could, shot two jet streams of water at the dummy. Unfortunately, they rebounded, pegging him in the face. He ended up dripping wet and choking on water in his lungs.

"Failed!" Lloyd nodded towards the last kid. "Laynie, you're up. Think you can do it?"

"Uh maybe." Laynie backed up, about to take off running when suddenly she stopped. She heard a voice in her head. A voice that wasn't hers. _You'll never escape this Laynie. You can't run away. You're too small. Too weak. What are you compared to them? Nothing. You can be something though. If you just wish it all away…_

"You okay Laynie?" Lloyd asked.

"Yeah." She faced the training course. Where normally she could see the dummy, suddenly she saw a shadow. The same shadow that had been visiting her every night in her dreams since she was five years old. She suddenly felt a sudden surge of energy. Her feet pounded on the training room floor. She lept over the planks with ease, dodged the swords swiftly, without a problem. "Here comes the dummy…" she muttered, planning to kick it's face. But suddenly she found herself spinning, surrounded by blue lightning and wind. She attacked the dummy with full force. The shadow slowly began to fade away. She smiled and it disappeared. Then the blue lightning stopped and she found herself on the ground breathing heavily. She looked up to see three faces staring at her in awe.

"What was that?" She asked.

"Laynie," Lloyd said. "That was spinjitzu."


	10. A Family Divided

**Hey guys! Sorry I didn't update for like a hundred years. I was gonna wait to finish watching the Sons of Garmadon season before I kept writing this in case anything that happens in SOG affect my plotline, character, etc. I like to keep things as canon as possible. Anyway, Season 8 isn't over yet but I have so many ideas and nothing from the season is affecting anything that happens in this chapter, so I got excited and decided to write it. Once Season 8 is over I'll probably go back and edit some of my previous chapters to go along with the new season. The basic plotline won't change though. I'm just gonna revise some conversations or add some characters in certain places (hopefully I won't have to remove any!) Anyway, sorry for making you wait so long for a new chapter, and I hope you enjoy!**

Chapter 10: A Family Divided

"I did spinjitzu...I did spinjitzu. I DID SPINJITZU!"

"We get it Laynie, you did spinjitzu, now can you please be quiet I'm trying to work here." Cliff was putting the final touches on the robot he'd been building for months.

"Okay, sorry." Laynie tried to sit quietly on a chair in the garage where he was working, but after a moment she smiled. "I did spinjitzu!" She whispered.

Cliff set his screwdriver down. "Alright then." he said, annoyed. "I'm done here."

"Wait, why?"

"Because 1) this stupid screw won't fit, and 2) you're being obnoxious."

"Oh," Laynie hopped up from the chair. "Maybe I can help." She grabbed the screwdriver out of his hand.

"It's okay Lay, you don't have to-" He stopped when he realized his sister was screwing the bolt in just fine.

"How did you do that?"

"Easy." Laynie said. "The screw won't fit because you had the wires blocking the hole from the inside. I moved the wires to make space for the screw." She handed Cliff the tool. "You always gotta plan ahead when building this kind of stuff."

Cliff rolled his eyes, but with affection. "Nerd."

Laynie laughed. "Hey, at least this nerd can do spinjitzu."

"Oh whatever!" Cliff chuckled and shook his head as he began to put his tools away. He wheeled his robot into a closet. "Let's go inside and grab the remote before Mom remembers it's her turn to pick tonight's movie."

The kids ran inside the house and jumped on the couch in the massive game/movie room. Laynie snatched up a small black remote and turned on the giant flat screen TV. Jay and Nya came in.

"No movie tonight." Jay said.

"What, why?" Cliff asked.

Nya stepped in front of the screen. "If my memory serves me correctly you two are still grounded. Besides, ninja don't just sit around in front of the TV. They have to train."

"But we spent all afternoon training with Lloyd!" Laynie whined.

"And that's great, but Lloyd is only teaching you how to _control_ your powers. We wanna teach you how to actually _use_ them, _for good._ " Nya added.

"Can we do it tomorrow?" Cliff asked, resting his head on a throw pillow and closing his eyes. "I'm really tired."

Jay leaned over the couch and snatched the pillow out from under his son's head. "No sleeping for you!" Then he grabbed the the remote from Laynie's hands. "Evil doesn't watch Netflix and neither should you!" He turned the TV off.

Cliff and Laynie sighed and stood up. Nya smiled. "Okay Cliff, you and I are gonna go outside to the pool. You two stay here." Cliff shook his head as he followed his mother out the back door. Jay turned to his daughter. "Okay now that they're gone, we can actually have some fun." He said jokingly. Laynie giggled. "What are we gonna do?"

Jay jogged across the room to a panel of switches on the wall. He pressed numerous buttons until he found the ones that turned off all the lights in the TV room. He also unplugged every device he could find. Soon the room was pitch black.

"Laynie?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you see me?"

"No."

"Good, I want you to turn the light on."

"Um, okay…" Laynie began fumbling across the room using the sofa for support.

"No, no, no." Jay said. "Use your powers!"

Laynie stumbled on a cushion that had fallen on the floor. "How do I do that?"

"It's easy!" She could hear Jay's footsteps coming closer to her. "Just zap the lightbulbs. But you have to make sure you use the right voltage. Too much lightning could electrocute the house and kill your mom and brother, please don't do that, but too little's not gonna do anything."

"That's scary." Laynie told him.

"It's fine!" Jay reassured. "Just give it a go."

Laynie raised her hands toward where she assumed the lightbulb was positioned. She hesitated, then shot two jolts of lightning. She could see it collide with the lightbulb and ducked down covering her head with her hands in case it exploded or something. After a few seconds, the bulbs sparked to life, illuminating the room. Laynie looked up to see Jay beaming, clearly from pride. "Laynie you did it!" He jumped up on the couch. Getting married and becoming a father had not dulled the childish side of him. If anything, it brought it out more. Laynie laughed and jumped on the couch with him. "Yeah, I did!"

"Do it again!" Jay yelled. "Turn on the TV!" Laynie blasted it to life. Jay clapped his hands. "The radio!" ZAP! "The video game console!" ZAP! "The alarm clock!" ZAP! "MY PHONE!" Jay held up his dead BorgPhone. Laynie shot it with her electrical charge and it promptly lit up the screen. They collapsed onto the couch laughing from pure excitement and delight.

Nya and Cliff were a different story. Nya was trying to teach Cliff how to reverse the flow of the water in the backyard pool, but Cliff only succeeded in frustrating himself and her. She tried to help him, but he wouldn't listen.

"I can figure it out by myself!"

"No, you can't." Nya was sitting on the edge of the hot tub watching him. "That's the point of being on a team. You can't do everything on your own. Sometimes you need the help of others."

"Yeah well right now isn't one of those times." Cliff turned his back to her. He looked in through the window and saw his father and sister jumping up and down on the couch zapping their hearts out. "Of course she's doing it perfectly." He muttered.

"What?" Nya asked.

"Nothing." Cliff faced the pool again.

Nya hopped up. "Okay, you see how this water flows from the hot tub into the big pool?"

Cliff nodded.

"I want you to reverse it." The water ninja commanded. "I wanna see water coming up out of the pool into the hot tub."

"That's impossible." Cliff said.

"Not if you try hard enough. Watch." Nya closed her eyes and lifted her hands slowly. The small waterfall stopped moving, then changed it's direction. Nya opened her eyes and smiled. "Like that."

Cliff rolled his eyes and tried to copy his mother. The waterfall, which had reset itself back to normal, stopped flowing once again. Cliff squeezed his eyes shut and lifted his hands. He could hear the water moving. _Did I do it?_ He opened one eye to see and...the water sprayed him in the face.

"Ugh, this is stupid!" Cliff shook his head to get water out of his hair. "I'm done!"

"You're gonna give up, just like that?" Nya crossed her arms over her chest. "That doesn't sound like a ninja to me."

"Well, I'm not like you, okay? I'm not your 'perfect son' who inherited your elemental crap and now we're gonna fight skeletons together with the power of 'love' and 'family' so just go inside and tell your 'perfect daughter' that her brother's a loser who can't do spinjitzu."

Nya was stunned into silence for a moment by this sudden outburst. Then her brow furrowed. "Do you wanna call my water powers that I so generously passed on to you, _elemental crap,_ again?"

Cliff raised an eyebrow. _Do you really wanna do this Cliff? Get her angry and risk getting into even more trouble?_ "Elemental crap." _Oh frick, I just did that._

Nya was angry, but she didn't yell. Instead, she said slowly and cooly. "Cliff Ray Walker, go inside right now."

"But I thought we were training." _I'm already in trouble so there's no point in giving in now._

"Go inside right now." Nya pointed to the door. Cliff spun around and headed inside, Nya following. As he entered the house, he saw Jay and Laynie on the couch _watching TV._

"Hey! What happened to being grounded?"

Laynie jumped up. "Cliff! Cliff! Cliff! I used lightning to turn the lights on!" She smiled, excited to share this information with her brother. She giggled. "You're all wet."

"Oh well good for you then." Cliff said sarcastically. "Just another thing you can be better than me at."

Laynie's smile faded. "What?"

"Hey Cliff, what's going on?" Jay muted the flat screen.

Cliff entered the room. "What's going on is little miss 'I'm so much better than Cliff cause I get good grades and do spinjitzu and can control my powers' thinks she can just smile and giggle her way out of everything."

"Cliff! Tell your sister sorry right now!" Jay wasn't used to yelling at his kids so this command came out a little awkwardly.

Cliff smirked. "Of course you'd take her side. She's always been your favorite."

Jay was confused. "I don't have a favorite."

"Oh yeah? Then explain why she goes to school, literally _electrocutes_ a kid then gets to just come home and watch TV while I get sent up to my room."

Nya put a hand on her hip. "But you made Darren slip Cliff, so you helped." She looked at her husband. "I do agree though, that Laynie shouldn't have been allowed to watch."

"Well she did really well with her training, so I thought we could celebrate." Jay looked at his daughter. "Right, Laynie?"

Laynie didn't answer. She looked up at Cliff. "I'm not perfect."

Cliff rolled his eyes. "You don't have to play baby, Laynie."

"I'm not playing baby. You are."

"What?"

"You want them to feel bad for being 'horrible parents'-no offense-so they'll run to you crying saying they're sorry."

Jay nodded to himself. "That's probably what would happen." Nya shot him a look.

"You think your life is _so hard_ cause you ruin science projects and get water everywhere, but you're not the only one who has bad days okay? Just because I smile and laugh all the time doesn't mean I'm always having the best day ever!" Laynie was surprised at herself for sounding so mean.

"Heh, you could fool me." Cliff rolled his eyes. "Everything's always great in Laynie Land. Everyone loves it in Laynie Land."

"Cliff go upstairs." Nya ordered through clenched teeth. Cliff ignored her.

Laynie had had enough. "You know, Mom and Dad probably _do_ love me more than you! I wouldn't be surprised if they did, considering I'm not a selfish brat who thinks he deserves more than anybody else! The reason I get good grades and am not failing all my classes like _some people_ is because I actually work hard and study! You struggle so much building your robots because you don't have an understanding of the math and science behind it-"

"Would both of you just shut your mouths and go upstairs!" Nya shouted.

"Hey, how about we-" Jay was interrupted by Nya.

"If you guys thought you were in trouble before-"

Neither Cliff or Laynie were listening. They both exploded shouting insults at each other. Jay kept trying to say something, but each time he was overpowered by his children's fight. Nya joined in, yelling at them to stop.

"Take that back!" Laynie responded to something Cliff had said.

"Never!" Cliff was defiant. "It's true."

Laynie screamed and threw herself at Cliff knocking him on the ground. She began to hit him, not particularly hard, but enough to hurt a little.

"Bet you wish you could do spinjitzu now, huh?"

"Laynie…" Nya warned.

Cliff struggled to fight back. Laynie was a lot stronger than he realized. "No, what I wish is-" He paused, wondering if he was really gonna say it.

"Laynie get off your brother!" Nya reached for her daughter but Laynie shrugged her off.

"I wish…"

Jay's eyes flashed between Laynie, Cliff, and Nya. He felt like he needed to stop this, but he didn't know how.

"YOU WISH?" Laynie was furious.

"I WISH YOU WEREN'T MY SISTER! I WISH YOU WOULD JUST GO AWAY AND NEVER COME BACK! "

"ENOUGH!" The lightning flashed outside and a loud roll of thunder was heard, as Jay jumped between his kids and pulled them apart. Laynie was flung onto the ground and burst into tears. The lights in the house flickered.

"You both are acting worse than Kruncha and Nukal fighting over a donut!" He yelled. "Well guess what, the donut is actually a rock so this whole thing is pointless!" For a moment, all anger and hatred was forgotten, as the siblings exchanged a confused look.

"Go upstairs to your rooms and I don't wanna see or hear either of you until the morning, do you understand me?"

Laynie and Cliff were stunned into silence. Their father had never even raised his voice at them before let alone YELLED at them.

"DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?"

Laynie ran, crying up the stairs and slammed her bedroom door shut. Loud sobs could be heard from above them. Cliff glared at Jay, who glared back. Cliff turned to Nya with a small look of "I'm sorry" in his eyes, hoping she'll defend him and get him out of trouble, but she folded her arms and stared at him sternly. Cliff sighed and stomped up to his room. Another door slam.

Jay and Nya were quiet for a minute, thinking about the scene they just witnessed. Nya leaned against the wall. "I didn't know you had that in you."

Jay sat back down on the couch. "I didn't know I did either." Nya sat next to him.

"I don't like it." Jay told her. "Yelling at them. Punishing them."

"Nobody does Jay." Nya said. "But we have to. Otherwise, they don't learn."

"What happened outside to get Cliff all riled up?"

Nya sighed. "He just got upset cause he couldn't do what I asked him to. But he didn't want my help either. He wants to do everything by himself and he gets frustrated when he thinks he's gonna fail."

Jay gave a small smile. "Remind you of anyone?"

Nya rolled her eyes and elbowed him. "You know I wasn't that bad." Jay raised an eyebrow. Nya giggled and laid her head on his shoulder. "Okay, okay, I was pretty bad. But I still don't know how to get him to understand. How'd you get Laynie figuring it out so quickly?"

"I don't know. It just kind of clicked with her I guess. Some people just take control of their powers easier than others."

They were silent a moment before Nya said, "You know, I can kinda see where Cliff was coming from."

"What do you mean?"

Nya lifted her head. "When he said we love Laynie more than him. I know we don't, but lately, you have been spending a lot more time with Laynie and paying attention to her more. I don't know if you've realized it or not, but I can understand why Cliff might feel that way."

"Wait, you're saying I've been ignoring him?" Jay removed his arm from around her shoulders. "What about you?"

"What about me?"

"This can't just be my fault. He was angry at both of us. And I haven't been treating Laynie any better than him. Or at least I haven't tried to. You've been just as disclusive of him as me." Jay defended himself.

"What are you talking about?" Nya asked, beginning to get upset.

"Well," Jay scooted to the edge of the sofa. "You're not really home much anymore. You leave early in the morning to teach at the school, you stay after to school to clean up, then you meet us for training, then go home to bed. Then the next day it's the same thing. It's hard for me to be there for both of them when you're not here to help me. So yeah, maybe I have to focus on one kid at a time and I'm sorry if it seems like I focus on Laynie more but that's how it is." He tried to read her face for a reaction to this statement. He knew it sounded accusing, but it was something he'd been wanting to say for a while. Nya's face was blank. She stared at him emotionlessly. "And, I miss you." Jay reached for her hand. She pulled it away.

"Fine." She stood up. "I'm sorry I'm such a horrible mother." She began to stalk out of the room.

"Nya, no honey, that's not what I meant-"

"No, I get it." She turned around and threw her hands up sarcastically. "I should stop working and making money for our family cause you can't handle two teenage kids who barely even do anything for a few hours every day."

"Nya-"

"You know, I'll quit teaching robotics, like one of the things I love most in the world, so you can go build your heart away for Cyrus Borg. And I will stay here, at home, alone, with nothing to do, just waiting for you to come home so I can make you dinner. Is that what you want?"

Jay was distraught. He didn't know she would take it this hard. "Nya you know I never-"

Nya was not going to let her husband speak. "Oh wait, since I quit my job, there _is no food_ so looks like we'll just all starve!"

"Nya I make a lot of money from working at Borg Industries. Like, _a lot_." Jay was starting to get irritated. "Plus, we have my father's money to last us a lifetime. I don't really think we're in any desperate need of-"

"So you do want me to quit?"

"No!"

"Then what are you saying?"

"I don't even know what either of us are saying right now!" Just then Laynie's quieting sobs intensified. Nya gave Jay a look of "Now look what you did" Jay sighed and stood up to go comfort his daughter.

"No!" Nya stuck her arm in front of him. " _You_ are going to stay in here, on the couch. In fact, why don't you stay there all night!" They paused and stared at each other a moment. Were they really fighting?

Jay and Nya had had their fair share of disagreements, but they'd never truly fought like this before. Not since that day years ago that only they can remember. That day the ninja were being chased by paparazzi, and they tried to hide on the roof of the hospital. But since Nya couldn't use airjitzu to get up on the billboard, she was exposed to the cameras. Jay offered his hand to her, and she rejected it, wanting to take care of herself, and not seem like the "damsel in distress." Kind of the way she was acting now. Of course, that timeline was erased due to Jay's final wish, to save Nya's life, and the alternate ending of that situation was a lot happier.

Jay could see some tears spring in the corners of his wife's eyes. She turned away. " _I_ am going upstairs, to check on my daughter, like the good mother that I am!" She stomped out of the room and up the stairs.

Jay was frozen for a moment. Then, he slowly sat back down on the couch. He couldn't believe that just happened. He and Nya had a full out argument. Over something stupid like favoritizing one of their children. He hadn't meant to hurt her feelings. He only wanted to let her know how he felt. He really did miss coming home to her every day and he was sure the kids missed her as well. _I should go apologize._ He thought. _Nah, I'll wait until morning. Better give her some time to herself._ He sighed and began making himself a bed on the couch when suddenly he heard Nya scream "JAY!"

Jay dropped what he was doing and bolted up the stairs and found Nya in the hallway. "Nya, what's wrong?"

"Laynie's gone!"

Jay peered inside his daughter's bedroom. The bed was empty and the window hung wide open.


	11. Search Party

Chapter 11: Search Party

Laynie opened her eyes. She had had the dream again. That nightmare that had tormented her every night since she was little. She didn't know where it came from or why, but it was always there, and it was always the same.

It started with her lost in a dark room, unsure of where she was. She calls for her brother and gets no answer. She calls for her friends. No answer. She calls for her brother desperately, getting nervous. Still no answer. Then she hears a soft chuckle, and a tall shadow approaches her. Some kind of genie maybe? He's floating a few inches above the ground. He tells her that everybody is gone. That she's all alone. She begins to cry and he tells her she can end all her pain if she just wishes it all away...whatever that means.

Normally after the horrible dream, Laynie would wake up, pretty freaked out. But then she'd see the sunlight peeking through her curtains illuminating her cheery bedroom, and she'd remember it was all just a dream and she was safe at home.

As she awakened this time, she began her usual ritual of reminding herself that there was nothing to be worried about. But when her eyes adjusted to the dark lighting, she realized she wasn't at home. This wasn't her bedroom. It was some sort of wooden building, half of the floor covered in water. The storm had stopped but it was still dark out. Laynie stood up shakily.

"Mom?" She called out. "Dad?" She heard the sound of waves splashing against land. The structure she stood on, swayed beneath her unsteadily. "Hello?" Nothing but the sound of the wind. Laynie looked around and spotted a loose board in the wall. She ran over to it and moved it out of the way. Yes! A space big enough for her to fit through and figure out where she is and how to get home. She began to squeeze through when she heard a voice behind her.

"Don't think about trying to escape."

She froze. That voice. The voice from her dreams. The voice telling her every night to make a wish. The voice of…

"Nadakhan?" She turned around to face the shadow in the corner of the room.

"You know my name?" He said in his thick accent.

"Y-yeah," Laynie said shakily. "You told me before."

"Ah, yes, I remember." The shadow moved across the room. "You were so small, so weak and scared, just as you are now."

Laynie's eyes were wide with fear, but she managed to say, "What do you want with me?"

The figure chuckled. "Oh, it's not just you I want." He moved into the light. Laynie could see him in full now. His long ponytail, dark mustache, his green armor. One of his hands was missing, replaced by a hook. He had no legs, just a spirit hovering above the floor. Like a genie. No, like a djinn.

He ran his hooked hand over his jagged sword. "I want something much more than that."

Nya and Jay burst into their son's room. Cliff was laying on his bed, playing on a small blue GameBoy. He slammed it shut and hid it under his pillow when his parents entered.

"Where's Laynie?" Jay asked.

"In her room," Cliff answered, a hint annoyed.

"No, she's not, she's missing," Nya told him.

Cliff sat up. "Wait, what?"

"Where is she?" Nya asked.

"I don't know!" Cliff hopped off the bed.

Jay was frantic. "Why did she leave? Where did she go?"

Nya pulled out her phone. "Jay, call Mandy Lahey and ask if Laynie is at their house with Misti. I'm calling the guys."

"What do I do?" Cliff asked. Neither parent answered, each anxiously dialing numbers on their cell phones.

"Laynie's not with the Laheys," Jay announced. Nya took a deep breath, trying to stay calm, while she talked to someone over the phone. Then, she hung up and said, "Cliff pack a bag, you're staying the night at the Bounty."

"Wait, why?"

"We're meeting the rest of the team at the Bounty to go look for your sister and I am not leaving you by yourself until she is safe."

"But I wanna help!"

Jay and Nya were already out the door, getting in the car. Cliff sighed and threw some pajamas, a change of clothes, and a toothbrush into his backpack and joined them.

By the time they reached the Bounty, Jay had rambled off a list of all the possible things that could've happened to Laynie. Nya tried to keep him calm, but she was still a bit upset about their earlier argument so she didn't try too hard. The family jumped out of the car and dashed onto the ship, where they found the rest of the team waiting, Amber and Roxy as well, whose parents also didn't want them left alone.

"Nya, what's going on?" Kai asked, placing a concerned hand on his sister's shoulder. Fighting back tears, the water ninja explained Cliff and Laynie's fight and Laynie's disappearance. Amber and Roxy exchanged wide-eyed, fearful looks with Cliff.

"We'll help you look for her," Lloyd told the distressed Walkers. He turned to everyone else "We'll split into groups of two. Search all over Ninjago. I'll call the police department and see if the commissioner can get some of his men out there too."

"Thank you," Jay said gratefully. He turned to Nya assuming they'd be teaming up together, _their_ daughter being the one missing and all, but she stepped away. "Lloyd and I will go to Ninjago City. Kai and Skylor take Jumonokai Village, Zane and P.I.X.A.L. Birchwood Forest and Glacier Barrens. Jay and Cole," She looked at her husband and his best friend. "Anywhere else."

"What about us?" Cliff asked.

"Yeah, we wanna find her too," Amber added.

Skylor moved forward. "You three are gonna stay here with Misako and Master Wu. The last thing we want is for something to happen to one of you guys as well."

And just as soon as they had gotten there, the ninja were off, speeding away into the night in search of Laynie. The three teens stared through the window after them.

"Well," Amber said as the vehicles were no longer in sight.

"What now?" Roxy asked.

Misako entered the room with a plate of cookies. "Hey guys," She smiled warmly. "I thought you might like a midnight snack."

Roxy immediately reached for one, but Cliff still sat staring out the window.

"Cliff, you want a cookie?" Amber held the plate out to him. Cliff shook his head. Amber sighed. "Laynie's gonna be fine. The ninja are gonna find her and bring her back safe and everything will be okay."

"But what if it's not?" Cliff turned around. Visible tears running down his face. "She could be lost and hurt and scared, with nobody to help and protect her!" He buried his face in his knees.

Amber didn't know what to do. She wasn't used to comforting people. Usually, other people did that for her. Roxy wiped some cookie crumbs off her sleeve and crawled over next to Cliff.

"Hey," She said. "Nothing is gonna happen to her. Laynie is small but she's tough. She's not easily defeated. No one will pick on her."

"But I did," Cliff mumbled into his pajama pants.

"What?"

Cliff lifted his head. "I did. I'm the reason she's gone." He choked. "I shouldn't have been so mean to her. She didn't do anything wrong, I was just jealous. Now she's out there all alone because I told her-"

Roxy looked concerned. "What did you tell her."

"I told her-" Cliff struggled to get the words out. "I told her that I didn't want her to be my sister, and I wish she would just leave and never come back." Cliff turned away from Roxy, not wanting her to see him like this. Roxy was about to say something when she was interrupted by a big flash of lightning. All three kids jumped when they heard a deep chuckle, and an evil voice says, "Your wish is yours to keep."


	12. Be Careful What You Wish For

Chapter 12: Be Careful What You Wish For

"Who are you?" Cliff asked. A puff of smoke appeared in front of him, and from it rose Nadakhan, sword in hand, smiling wickedly. "Hello, Cliff."

"Who are you?" Cliff repeated. Roxy and Amber stood close by, nervously.

Nadakhan moved closer to them. "Aw, you'd think after so many hours of studying, you would've learned a thing or two about me, hmm?"

Cliff's eyes widened as realization hit him. "You're Nadakhan! The pirate genie!"

"Master Wu!" Amber called out, frightened. "Misako!"

"Oh, they can't hear you from where they are." Nadakhan smiled. "They can't hear anything. And I'm a djinn, not a genie."

The kids gasped. "What have you done with Laynie?" Roxy asked. "Where is she?"

"I could tell you…" Nadakhan floated across the room. "But it seems you already have people out there looking for her, so what's the point in that?"

"We'll find her," Cliff said, trying to sound confident. "If the ninja can't save her, we will."

"But isn't this what you wanted?" Nadakhan asked.

"What?"

Nadakhan got real close to Cliff's face. Cliff leaned away. "You do know what a djinn is correct?"

"Yeah, I know what a djinn is, it's like a genie they grant wish-" Cliff's voice trailed off as he recognized what was going on.

Nadakhan smiled. "Be careful what you wish for…"

Lloyd's car skidded to a stop in the middle of Ninjago City and the two ninja hopped out.

"Okay, how about you look downtown, I'll look uptown," Lloyd suggested. Nya nodded and pulled her ninja mask over her head.

Lloyd did the same. "We'll find her Nya, don't worry."

Nya didn't answer, just ran off down the street, calling her daughters name and looking around. Lloyd ran the other direction. He couldn't imagine how scared and worried she must be right now. He knew if it was his daughter, he'd do anything to get her back. Lloyd sometimes found himself dreaming of the family he could've possibly had, not that he didn't love his family now, but he often wondered about things like how many kids would he have? What would they look like? What would their names be? He didn't let his mind wander to this place much, though, because thinking of a family and having children, only reminded him of Harumi, and how she broke his heart. _Focus on Laynie._ He thought to himself. _You need to find Laynie._

Nya's footsteps pounded on the cement pavement in the streets of the city as she dashed across town, winding through alleyways, peeking in random shops and restaurants, asking anyone if they've seen a thirteen-year-old girl with auburn hair and blue eyes, running around. She had no luck though. Panicking, she pulled out her phone and attempted to call Laynie for the tenth time. It went straight to voicemail.

"Laynie?" Nya recorded a message through her tears. "Laynie, it's mom. I need you to call me and tell me where you are, and if you're okay. We're all looking for you. Please call me back." She hung up the phone with shaky hands and took a deep breath. _Stop crying Nya, you're a ninja. You've faced off to just about every kind of evil you can imagine, you're tough. You'll find Laynie and bring her home safe and everything will be okay again._ But deep down, Nya knew things weren't okay at all.

Nadakhan disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Cliff, Roxy, and Amber stood there, speechless.

"Wow," Amber said after a moment. "This really is your fault."

"Amber!" Roxy turned to Cliff. "And what do you mean 'if the ninja can't save her we will?"

Cliff sat down on the couch and began pulling on his tennis shoes. "Exactly what I said. We've spent our whole lives sitting around on this ship waiting for our parents to return from saving Ninjago. Well, now it's our turn."

Amber and Roxy looked doubtful. "Cliff, Laynie could literally be _anywhere_ in the world right now, we can't just wander around and hope we find her," Amber said.

"Yeah, plus he's got Wu and Misako too, which means…" Roxy paused. "We're all alone."

All three kids were silent, staring at the floor, then Amber looked up and smiled. "I'm in." She held out her hand. Cliff grinned and placed his on top of hers.

They both looked at Roxy, awaiting her answer. She thought for a moment, then added her hand to the pile. "Let's go save your sister. She smiled at Cliff who smiled back. Then the three threw their arms in the air. "Ninja GO!"


	13. He Always Knew

Chapter 13: He Always Knew

"Are you sure you know how to fly this thing?"

Amber was watching Cliff mess around with the buttons and steering wheel in the control room of the Destiny's Bounty.

"Yeah, I mean I think so," Cliff answered. "I've watched my mom do it a couple times before, it can't be that much different from driving a car in Drivers ED." He pulled a lever that started up the engine. He smiled triumphantly. Amber rolled her eyes. Roxy ran into the room with a wooden box in her arms.

"Guys look what I found!" She set the box down on the ground. Amber and Cliff peered inside.

"Are those-"

"Ninja suits!" Roxy pulled a black ninja uniform from inside the box. "One for each of us, look!" In the box lay a red suit, and a gray suit. Amber and Cliff picked them up, respectively.

Cliff held it up to himself. "Woah, where did you find these?"

"They were in Master Wu's closet," Roxy answered.

"Why were you in Master Wu's room?" Amber asked. Cliff raised an eyebrow.

Roxy giggled, sheepishly. "I don't know, I thought I might find something that could help us." She smiled and held her suit up. "Which I did!"

"Master Wu must have been keeping them for us," Amber said.

"You mean he _knew_ we were gonna unlock our powers?" Cliff asked. "Why didn't he say anything like, forever ago?"

Amber shrugged, her eyes drifting over to the box, again. "Hey, there's something else in there." She lay her ninja suit over a chair and pulled out another one, which was colored blue.

"That must be for Laynie," Roxy suggested.

"Which reminds me." Cliff ran back over to the steering wheel. "You girls ready for take off?"

Roxy and Amber gave him the thumbs up. He opened a small panel and pressed a large red button. The ship promptly rose above the trees, into the sky. The kids were used to being in the air. They had traveled with their parents in the Bounty before, but it was usually Nya or Lloyd who steered. They started out a bit shaky, wobbling and scraping against trees.

Roxy and Amber, sitting on the floor exchanged nervous looks.

"Cliff are you sure you've got this?" Roxy asked.

"Yes, I've got it, just give me a sec." Cliff spun the wheel a couple times and eventually straightened the ship out. They began to fly smoothly.

"Sooo… where exactly are we going?" Roxy asked.

"My house," Cliff answered. "To look for clues. To figure out how Nadakhan took her and where."

* * *

Cole and Jay trudged through the Sea of Sand, looking around, calling Laynie's name. They were glad it was still dark out, otherwise the scorching hot sun would've made them more miserable than they already felt. They'd been looking for hours now, and they didn't have one clue as to where Laynie was.

"Hey," Cole said after they had walked in silence for a while. "Are you and Nya alright?"

"What do you mean?" Jay asked.

Cole shrugged. "I don't know, you just seemed kind of...distant from each other tonight. Like she was avoiding you or something." He looked at his friend. "Not the happy couple I've always known."

Jay sighed. "She thinks I want her to quit her teaching job so she can stay home with the kids while I work fulltime for Cyrus Borg."

"Well do you?"

"No!" Jay looked at the ground. "I mean, kind of, I don't know really. I don't want her to quit doing what she loves, but I can see how her being gone all the time is affecting our family. Cliff and Laynie are always arguing, and half of it I think is just to get her attention. They need their mom sometimes, just to be there when they come home from school, to help them with their homework, to eat dinner with them, to play with them and talk about what's going on in their lives. Doing those things with me all the time is fun, but it's not enough for them, you know?"

Cole nodded. "Moms are important. Wives are too. I lost both of those things and trust me, it's hard. It makes you scared of losing people."

Jay looked at Cole, eyes wide. "I don't wanna lose Nya. I can't."

"And you won't," Cole smirked. "Remember, this isn't the first time she's been upset with you and that turned out pretty well right?"

Jay smiled at the memory. "Yeah, you're right. 'Right now we're just having our first fight" he quoted himself. Cole laughed. "There you go! You guys got through that little issue and you'll get through this one too."

"Thanks, Cole." He chuckled. "You backstabbing, no-good, blackhearted ninja!"

Cole elbowed him playfully. "Hey, black is not blue, zaptrap!" Jay rolled his eyes and elbowed him back. Then he looked up ahead of them. "There's my parents' junkyard, maybe Laynie's came here!" The two began to run through the sand towards the scrapyard, while the morning sun slowly began to rise into the sky.


	14. Chasing Clues

**Okay so before everyone starts "correcting" me in the reviews, I know Cole's last name isn't Steele. But it was never confirmed to be Brookstone or Bucket either. (And like seriously, "Bucket?" Like, out of all the last names in the world that's what you're gonna call the Master of Earth?) In an interview with Kirby Morrow (voice of Cole), he said he would like Cole's last name to be "Steele" so that's what I'm calling him until I see proof that Cole's canon last name is Brookstone, Bucket or Hence? (Is that the other name people are giving him?) Anyway, sorry my updates have been so slow, I've been really busy with the musical I was in, but the show's over and I'm on summer vacation now (woo!) so hopefully I can update more! I have so many cool ideas for this story that I'm really excited for ya'll to read, so enjoy this chapter and stay tuned for more!**

Chapter 14: Chasing Clues

The Destiny's Bounty landed not-so-gracefully in the forest surrounding the Cliff Gordon mansion where the Walker family lived.

"See?" Cliff said as Roxy and Amber held onto each other for dear life. "It's easy!"

The three climbed off the ship, garbed in their new uniforms, and walked through the gate to the front door. Cliff punched a code into a small keypad. Then a camera popped out of the wall and scanned him and his friends. "Cliff Walker, Amber Smith, Roxanne-" The machine cleared its throat. "Roxy Steele."

"Huh, not bad Walker, not bad." Roxy smiled at Cliff. He tried to hide the red that tinted his cheeks as the automatic doors opened. Roxy and Amber followed him inside. Cliff nodded up the stairs, and they ran up to Laynie's room.

"So what are we looking for?" Roxy asked.

"Clues," Cliff answered as he began searching his sister's room. "Anything that will help us find Laynie."

Amber adjusted her long ponytail. "How come you didn't just ask Nadakhan where she was? I mean, he probably wouldn't have told you exactly, but he might've given you a hint. Bad guys usually do...I think."

Cliff paused a moment. "Uh...I was going to, but uh, I realized we don't need his help. Plus, you know we can't trust him!"

"Aha!" Roxy, who had been kneeling by the open window, stood up, a small object in her hand.

"What's that?" Amber asked.

"A stick!" Roxy was excited.

"A stick?" Cliff asked, dubiously.

"Not just any stick," Roxy handed it to him. "Well I mean, it's not really a stick, it's a shard of wood, but I know where it's from!"

"How can you tell?" Amber examined the "shard."

Roxy took it back from Cliff. "Feel the wood. It's damp and dark. And it's well worn too. Either this is the remnant of a sunken pirate ship, or this comes from the city of Stiix."

"Stiix?" Isn't that the old town our parents never let us visit cause it's 'shady?"

"Yup!" Roxy stuffed the splinter in her pocket. "And that's where we're gonna go."

* * *

Two motorcycles zoomed up the snowy mountain to Jamanakai village. When they reached the top, they came to a stop and removed their helmets.

"Wow, it's cold up here." Kai shivered and rubbed his gloved hands together to warm them up.

Skylor chuckled as she hopped off her bike. "That's Jamanakai village for ya. Always cold, always boring."

Kai looked around. "Seriously, could Nya have assigned us anywhere else? It would've made more sense for us to go to Ignacia, that's where my parents are."

"If Laynie was trying to run away, I don't think she would go to grandparents who are just gonna send her right back home. Then again, I doubt she would climb this mountain either."

The couple began walking through the streets, looking for their missing niece.

"Nya did seem pretty freaked out," Kai said. "Definitely more than I've ever seen before."

"It's a scary thing when your child's in danger. I mean, imagine if Amber disappeared you'd act the same way."

"I wouldn't be surprised if she did," Kai muttered.

"What?"

He sighed. "I don't understand why it's so hard for her to listen to us. She can't seem to realize that we are her parents and what we say goes. She deliberately disobeys us and thinks she can get away with it. I can't have a daughter who behaves like that." He looked at his wife, waiting for her to agree with him. Instead, she looked slightly amused. "What?" he asked, annoyed.

Skylor laughed and shook her head. "Oh nothing, I just remembered something."

"Oh yeah?"

She nodded. "I was just remembering this one time when my father was stealing elemental powers to turn everyone into snakes and was using me as a spy to get information on a certain group of young ninja. I believe it was the Master of Fire who convinced me to break away from my father, fight against him, and ultimately end up _banishing_ him to another realm?" She looked at him and smirked.

"That was different," Kai told her. "Chen was evil, I'm not."

"But Amber might see you that way."

"I've tried to talk to her, okay? She just never listens. She wants to branch off on her own, do things independently. _Grow up._ I just don't think she's ready."

Skylor stopped walking. " _She's_ not ready? Or _you're_ not ready?"

Kai paused a moment, then looked around again. "This is pointless, Laynie's not here. I say we go to Ignacia."

"Kai-"

He began to jog back towards the motorcycles. Skylor followed behind.

"Kai?"

"Yeah?"

"Is this whole 'dad thing' really hard for you?"

Kai stopped when he reached his bike. "I don't know. When Amber was a baby it was hard, and now that she's older, there's a whole new set of problems. So yeah, I guess. What do you mean?"

"I mean like," Skylor hopped on her motorcycle. "Say, you had to do it all over again, like the baby part."

Kai looked her wide-eyed. "Wait, are you telling me-"

Skylor interrupted him. "What was that?!" She pointed to the sky. Kai looked up to see a flying ship!

"Is that the Bounty?" Skylor asked.

"No," Kai answered. "It's too small. And the Bounty doesn't have those wings and propellers. Do you think it has something to do with Laynie's disappearance?"

Skylor put on her biker helmet. "I don't know, but let's go check it out!"

"Wait!" Kai called out. "You didn't tell me if-"

But Skylor was already halfway down the mountain. Kai chuckled to himself and chased after his wife, and the boat in the sky.


End file.
